1957 GE Wall Refrigerator In The House

[patricklawlor]

Hi all,
I was very pleased to find a GE Wall Fridge within an hour and a half from my home. It is safely in my basement awaiting a full restoration and return to daily use. It is a 57 in Canary Yellow which will match my 1954 Yellow tiled kitchen beautifully. My house is a stone MCM ranch with a bit of an atomic flare. The fridge will take it to the next level.

It's in better condition than the pictures might have you think. Very minor corrosion and all the door trim will clean up as new. There are cracks in the corners of the pink door insert corners as usual. The entire unit appears original mechanically without having had any major work done. A replacement compressor relay was installed by an amateur at some point. The leads were so poorly attached that two had come loose making the fridge "broke"

I don't really care how much work it may take as I am willing to do everything needed. I like restoring things and I plan on making this my best effort yet... Pat

 

[patricklawlor]

The pics are as found on Facebook Marketplace

 

[delco1946]

I have the combination version of this and went through a lot of work to find gaskets that would work. Unfortunately they only come in grey these days, but it worked like a champ!

 

[patricklawlor]

Mine also says combination in small writing on the lower freezer door trim.
I read the posts by turbokinetic and saw that the new door gaskets are grey as you noted. I'd prefer white as well but the grey will do. Is yours in everday use in your home?

 

[turquoisedude]

I found white gaskets for my 1956 GE LW-11 when it was restored last year.  The source was Canadian, however. 

 

[patricklawlor]

Would you share? I think we could work out the currency exchange

 

[turquoisedude]

Contact Francois Dubuc at Antique Electro in Sherbrooke, QC.  If you mention my name he'll actually know that I do decent restoration work of other appliances.  

https://www.antiqueelectro.com/

 

[combo52]

GE wall refrigerator

These were made from 1955 through 1960, they were all combination units, combination refers to the fact that it had both a freezer and an automatic defrost refrigerator.

Hi Pat, I saw your email. I do still have a brand new high side, which is the condenser and compressor for one of these, there’s about a 99 and 44, 100% chance that you need a new compressor on yours unless it’s already been changed.

I also have the complete evaporator unit or as GE called it the low side of the system new in the box, it’s less likely that you would need that but if you really want to do it right, it wouldn’t be ridiculous just to replace the entire sealed refrigeration system .

I’ll ask my partner in the business if he wants to sell them I don’t have one of these refrigerators any longer and don’t think I will ever need them.

 

[patricklawlor]

Thank you John for reaching out. Yes, I would like the entire units, everything. I'm 62 yo and am in my forever home. Id like to use this for the rest of my life. Honestly, I'd have re-engineered it for new components if I had to. But I am crazy about MCM living. My wife and I were just discussing how it seems as if the future actually occurred in the past. Lol. You have my email sir, thank you!
Pat

 

[delco1946]

Mine is daily use yes, and it keeps food much better than my 2016 fridge did. I would just make sure that different years use the same profile of gasket, I know 56 and 57 had a redesign which I believe included switching to magnetic closures so they may have changed (?). It’s a great fridge so I hope you get it up and running! Only down side is that 57 ge appliances had magnets built into the doors and not part of the gasket so modern gaskets with magnets means you end up with double magnet madness and a hard to open door. The door magnet is adjustable but I haven’t played with it too much yet.